Ritter Weighs Immigrant Prosecution Bill

Ritter Weighs Immigrant Prosecution Bill
Bill would make it easier to prosecute illegal immigrants

DENVER, CO. -- A bill aimed at preventing illegal immigrants from avoiding prosecution in Colorado is now on the desk of Governor Ritter.

Currently, illegal immigrants arrested for a crime who post bond to get out of jail can end up in immigration court, where they can be deported.

A measure backed by state lawmakers would require that the illegal immigrants be arrested if they return to the United States.

It would also require that bonding agents lose their money if their customers are deported. Critics fear that would prevent illegal immigrants or Americans who are Latino from being able to bond out of jail.

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

So,

Are they going to be tried in State courts for breaking the federal immigration laws if they return after being deported?

If they're breaking fed law by returning, then they should be tried again in immgration courts and require a immigration bond.

I confused!

I need to do more research on this, but the "bondsman being responsible for a bond after deportation" thing has been a real issue here. There was a particular case that went to either the appeals court or CO Supreme Court about it. I need to find it again, but it had to do with a person being arrested on charges in a second county while out on bond for charges in another county. Instead of being sent back to the original county, the person was given over to INS and extradited. The first county tried to force the bondsman to pay the forfeiture, but the higher court overturned on appeal stating that the second county and INS had taken control away from the bondsman by extraditing the defendant, knowing that he had an open case in the first county.

CO law clearly states, and this has been upheld, that if a bondsman writes a bond for a Mexican National, whether the person is here legally or illegally, and the defendant deliberately misses court and "runs" to Mexico, the bondsman will NOT be allowed exoneration on the bond as it was a known risk. Also, recent legislation requires the jail to notify a bondsman if a person is not a U.S. Citizen, and whether he/she is in the country legally or illegally. They are also required to notify INS.

If the person is here legally, it is a calculated risk on the bondsman's part. If they are here illegally, there is a known risk of deportation, so I can somewhat understand where this is coming from. If I knowingly bail out an illegal, knowing that INS could pick them up for deportation at any time, then I have to assume that INS has governing control over the state, and I am stupid to do the bond. Right? And people are right, if I know this, I am very unlikely to do the bond, so the person will sit in jail and have less opportunity to bond out. The opponants of this and other such issues make it seem like it is prejudicial.

The U.S. Constitution as well as all the State Constitutions that I know of allow a person the right to post bail. But, the posting of bail itself is a business, whether run by the state, an insurance company, or an individual. Whether a defendant can meet the requirements isn't discrimination, it is what is. Why should a poor person be treated differently than a rich one? A crime is a crime!

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Kathy Blackshear
Blackshear Investigations
Blackshear Bail Bonds
Sales Associate, Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.
Walsenburg, CO

Proud Member of the AB Reject Club

Wow,

In our local county at least, when a person is suspected of being illegal, they are reported to INS immediately and a hold may be placed on them. So then they can't post bail.

If they fight deportation, they can post an immgration bond to be released from INS custody.

If however no hold is placed on them and they make bail, the courts are NOT notified of their legal / illegal status. If they then decide to skip on their own and run to Mexico, the bail agent eats the forfeiture, unless of course they can get them back.

Now, in CA if they are deported by INS and they were out on bail, the bail agent gets off the bond as the law states that the feds has taken control and the bail agent no longer has the opportunity to bring the def back to the court.

Here is the link to a case supporting the court's right to demand judgment on a bond posted by a National who deliberately skipped bond:

http://www.courts.state.co.us/coa/opini ... CA2658.pdf

This is the one on the INS deportation:

http://www.courts.state.co.us/coa/opini ... CA1097.pdf

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Kathy Blackshear
Blackshear Investigations
Blackshear Bail Bonds
Sales Associate, Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.
Walsenburg, CO

Proud Member of the AB Reject Club

I believe the Immigration and Naturalization Act may also help. If memory serves correct 8 CFR 212(C) covers admissible aliens legal and otherwise and also spells out who is admissible based on conviction of crimes, commitment to mental institutions etc. Simply put, if a suspected alien legal or otherwise commits a crime, is charged with a crime(s), is convicted and spends/will spend more than 6 months in a penal institution or mental facility or probation for that same time period - the person is found immediately deportable and should be remanded to Federal Custody for a deportation hearing. The person is then allowed to request a bond hearing and if granted can remain in the USA and on bond until a time ICE deems the person deportable and enforces the deportation order. As with any legal process the appeals process can and will hinder these actions. 212(c) also states that any person convicted of a felony, drug related charges, and domestic violence or assault with deadly weapons charges is automatically denied a bail hearing and is supposed to go straight to deportation hearing with immediate enforceability.

If by Federal law the person is deemed deportable or inadmissible by these standards ICE is then obligated to detain the person until a hearing can be held on deportability – per the Amwest Agreement/Gonzalez vs. Gonzalez. If ICE does not act on this and the person is released on bond and flees to their home country would that not be grounds for exoneration? Simply because the person was released by a criminal court when in fact they should have been remanded to ICE custody?

In my own opinion 98% of all immigrants legal or otherwise are a huge risk for any bonds person. A person being bailed out often surrenders their passport making it that much more difficult for the person to cross borders but a person who is a foreign national and can obtain the necessary travel documents through their countries Embassy or Consulate without means to check for outstanding US wants and warrants…you would have to be nuts to post those types of bonds. That fact has nothing to do with race or nationality but with risk and should be looked at in that manner by all parties.

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Don Herbert
Surety Administrators, Inc.
645 Penn St. 4th Floor
Reading, PA. 19601
610-372-8811 xt 262

I can't imagine why anyone would write immigration bonds unless they have 110% cash collateral, these people are nearly impossible to find when they skip, they usually don't have legit ID to begin with so they often buy a new ID with a new name, the co-signers often speak a foreign language so it's hard to communicate no less tell if their a liar, many of the co-signers are the same people that payed to smuggle them in the first place, so there is no incentive for them to cooperate, they just ship them off to some other part of the country to work and add the forfeited bond to their debt.

If you actually do catch them you have to hope immigration will take them, if they have any technicality, appeal or pending hearing that means they can't be immediately deported then immigration will refuse custody.

As Don knows I have found skips on immigration bonds only to be told by immigration that they won't take them, the best cases are the ones where they deported themselves by leaving on their own, if you can get them to go to the nearest U.S. Consulate and document it then you can get off the bond.

Illegal immigration is more rampant than most could imagine, I've gone into Chinese Restaurants looking for skips and found several illegal aliens with Chinese Passports that have no entry stamp, the smugglers usually move the skip off to another area pretty quick after they bond out, I've even had co-signers that deny signing for the bond or knowing the skip, they like to pretend someone used their name.